Royce was concerned about Foster, but they had enough leverage on the computer expert to ensure his complete cooperation and discretion. Royce had no doubt that David had played Foster perfectly. David was too old a hand and too much of a professional to do anything less.
Foster read from a prepared script.
"Forty-five minutes ago, Western Command headquarters received a warning for a covert operation in its theater command. This warning order was relayed to subordinate headquarters, resulting in your presence here at the operations center."
He turned to the senior officer seated in the center, front seat.
"Brigadier General Slocum, Commander Special Operations, Westcom, is in charge of this mission. He will give you the mission tasking."
Foster took a seat and the one-star general took his place. Slocum had a Special Forces combat patch sewn onto the right shoulder of his camouflage fatigues, and the Combat Infantry Badge and the Master Parachutist Badge on his chest, above his name tag. He was all business as he barked out the tasking.
"Westcom Special Operations has been ordered to conduct a direct action mission to destroy a terrorist cell on Jolo Island, the Philippines. The primary target is the elimination – " Slocum looked up from the paper.
"Gentlemen, 'elimination' is the word used in the order. You and I need to talk in plain English. We're going to kill this son of a bitch Rogelio Abayon, the head of the Abu Sayef.
"I'm going to say something, and I'm only going to say it once," Slocum continued.
"We know this is the Sim-Center, not the war room at headquarters. So we know this mission isn't real. But I want every one of you to act like this is real. That flesh and blood soldiers are going to be out there putting it on the line. I hear or see any of you acting with less than your best effort, I'm going to put my boot so far up your ass, when you land, you'll be eating kimchi in the worst hellhole I can slot you in South Korea.
"Questions?"
The room was still.
Slocum nodded.
"Let's get going. Time's a-wasting. G-2. Briefing. Now."
The intelligence officer stood behind the podium. Royce noted that a digital camera was aimed at the man, and he knew that the briefing was being forwarded to Orson in Okinawa, where it would be stored so it could be replayed for the team – once it was assembled.
"There's a lot of disinformation being disseminated about the Abu Sayef," the officer began.
"Which might be part of a deliberate effort on the group's part to keep itself shrouded in confusion. According to media reports, the Abu Sayef only came into being in 1991 when it split off from the MNLF: the Moro National Liberation Front. But classified intelligence reports indicate the opposite is true: the Abu Sayef has been in existence since the end of World War Two under the control of Rogelio Abayon, and the MNLF was actually subordinate to it for many years.
"The Abu Sayef kept a very low profile for decades, funding and supporting other groups that got more attention, such as the MNLF. The stated goal of the Abu Sayef is to establish an Iranian-style Islamic state in the islands of the southern Philippines."
"What does Abu Sayef mean?" Slocum asked, interrupting the officer.
"Bearer of the Sword," the officer said.
"It's only in the past ten years or so that the Abu Sayef has gotten in the news, which is a credit to Abayon's ability to conduct covert operations and use other organizations as a cover. That changed after 9/11. There are credible reports of financial links between Abu Sayef and Al Qaeda. Since Islamic fundamentalism is so much in the news, it was inevitable that some word on Abu Sayef would come out, so it seems as if Abayon accepted the inevitable. Another factor could be that Abayon is getting old. He's in his late seventies, and there's some speculation among analysts that he wants to go out – for lack of a better term – with a bang.
"The first major action directly linked to Sayef was in 1991 when they conducted a grenade attack that killed two foreign women suspected of being missionaries. Then, the next year, Sayef terrorists threw a bomb at a ship docked at the southern city of Zamboanga. The ship was an international floating bookstore crewed by Christian clergy. Right after that, there were a series of bombings against Roman Catholic churches throughout the Philippines. In 1993 the Sayef bombed a cathedral in Davao City and killed seven people."
The officer checked his notes.
"That's the same year the Sayef began their campaign of kidnapping foreigners. Initially it was believed that they did it for the ransom, but it is more likely they did it for the notoriety. In 1995 the Abu Sayef attacked a Christian town on Mindanao, razing it to the ground and killing fifty-three civilians and soldiers."
Royce turned as Foster entered the control room. The scientist stared at him for several seconds, until Royce finally spoke.
"I work with David."
Foster was about to say something when the intelligence officer continued and both turned back to the operations center to listen.
"No group like this comes into being in a vacuum. This goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. Islam came to the Philippines in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. While in Indonesia and Malaysia, Muslims became a majority, in the Philippines they've always been a minority, about five percent of the population, concentrated in the southern islands. Catholicism is the dominant religion in the Philippines by far. After all, the Philippines were a Spanish colony from 1565 to 1898, and then we took over after the Spanish-American War. However, despite the small numbers, for centuries some islands, including Jolo, were essentially independent sultanates with a predominant Muslim population.
"It was me, the United States, who forced them into becoming part of the rest of the country. Both before and after World War II, most of those people did not even consider themselves Filipino but rather Moros. The central government in Manila always considered the Moros a threat and has made forced resettlement of Christians into Muslim held territory a national policy, which has not pleased the Moros. As much as the central government pushed, the Muslims have reacted and pushed back.
"This came to a head in 1946 when the Philippine Republic was established and the United States relinquished control of the islands. Choices had to be made. Surprisingly, some of the elite and powerful Muslim elders actually aligned themselves with the central government and even supported the resettlement of Christians in historically Muslim territory.
"Essentially they sold out. Or they bowed to what they viewed as an inevitable reality. But not all. Not Abayon. He tried to make things work between the two sides and almost succeeded. In the sixties he was able to broker a truce between the government and the Muslim extremists, but he couldn't keep it going. In 1968 a group of Muslim army trainees were massacred by their own Christian leaders. Then in the 1971 elections, Marcos and the ruling party gained so much power that they no longer felt they had to appease the Muslim minority. Outright war broke out between Christians and Muslims."
The officer continued.
"Marcos declared martial law in 1972. In reaction, Muslims declared themselves independent. Thousands were killed in the fighting and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Libya provided sanctuary for some of the Muslim leaders during this. But" – the officer glanced up from his notes – "Abayon never left the islands like many of his contemporary leaders in the revolt did.
"In 1976, under pressure from Libya and the OIC – the Organization of Islamic Conference, mainly made up of other Muslim countries – the Tripoli Agreement was negotiated. This brought a cease-fire and autonomy to thirteen southern provinces in the Philippines where the majority of Muslims lived.